Woche 85 von 102- Deutschkurs,
Missionstour in Salzburg und Pfahlkonferenz!
Hallo! (I really hate that greeting, but it's what they say here-
it just sounds way too English- meh!)
So after studies we went shopping! Like legit, I got so much food
and spent hardly anything! It's the best! So after that, we headed to the Insti
Centre to do emails and sort Uni stuff out, as we don't have the key to the one
computer at the chapel, which we needed for Uni stuff. Then basically pday was
over, so we went out finding on like a super busy shopping street by West
Bahnhof! It was cool although nobody wanted to know! Then we headed home, did a
bit more area book work and the day was done, but the bonus of the day is that
the Sisters called us up part way through the late afternoon to say that they
just found the best shop ever, which sells like everything British, so Sister
Jest was like, ‘Do you want me to pick anything up for you from here?’ .. so I
put in a little order and she's gonna bring it to Gemeinderat for me tomorrow! Excited!
Dienstag! Oh my goodness! Well, we'll begin from the start and get
to the crazy bit later. So after studies we still needed to sort out a
Fortschrittsbericht for Gemeinderat tonight, so did that before heading to the
Instizentrum where we had a quick lunch and then had a lesson with one of our
new members. Having an Instizentrum in the centre of the city is so cool. It
makes meeting people so much simpler! Then after that, the Wien 4 Elders asked
us to stay as they had a lesson with a woman, so they needed someone to stay in
the centre, so they aren't alone with a single lady. So we did Sprach, then
went out and did some finding, popped by the post, cause I needed to send my GA
back to die Schweiz, as I forgot when I left. Then back to the centre as
Tuesday and Thursday is Deutsch/Englisch Course. There are like 4 classes
Deutsch Beginners from Sister Neugebauer (Snr. Cpl.); Deutsch Intermediate from
the Wien 3 Sisters and Wien 5 Elders (they alternate - one does one day, the
other the other); Deutsch Advanced from Wien 4 and Englisch from Wien 1(us). Nobody
came to ours, so the Wien 3 Sisters asked us to help, as Sister Gillmour is in
her 3rd transfer and didn't have anything to do with it the last 2 transfers,
cause of her level of Deutsch and Sister Freeke is new in the area and has
never done any language course before, but the problem was that they had no
idea what course or subject they covered the previous week and the class are divided
on what they want to do. Some want to do Speaking skills and others want
Grammar lessons- its crazy. We spend the first half hour going around speaking
with individuals about what they are wanting and what they did last week and
all. Then we headed home to get Abendessen. Oh and I love the trams here- they
are so funny! Like every now and then it just announces- "Bitte Vorsicht!
Andere brauchen Ihrer sitzplätze vielleicht notwendiger!" Basically .. Please
be careful, some people need your seat more than yourself. Like it cracks me up
every time- just the fact that they have to tell people that and they don't
just realise it... Anyways, so after dinner we popped over to the chapel for
Gemeinderat! It was a pretty good Gemeinderat actually. So many members here
have served their missions in England. I spoke to Bishop and he says hi to Mom,
but can't remember too much .. but he's gonna look through his mission pics and
journals. Haha .. and I got a pic! Then the Bishops’ brother served in the same
mission as uncle Matt and Matt was his DL or ZL, I can't remember. Crazy stuff!
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| With Bishop (he served in the same mission with my Mom and Dad) |
The Sisters brought me the stuff from that British shop! Aren't they the best?!
Legit, we saw like almost the entire Wien Team today- Wien 1- us and our
Sisters, Wien 2- we bumped into at the centre today, Wien 3- at the centre,
Wien 4- we live with, the Senior Couple- at the centre, the only ones we missed
were the Wien 5 Elders! Crazy stuff! Working in Wien is so cool .. and next Wednesday we have a
Wien Team dinner appointment! There’s a member in Wien 4 who takes the Wien
Team out for lunch at his tennis club once a month! How cool is that? I'm super
excited!!!
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| The Sisters bought me some English stuff |
So this morning was a full on study morning before we headed into
District 1 for some solid finding hours. It was so packed! Like legit, District
1 is the tourist centre with real Austrian Touristy stuff and millions of
people, so I was a good boy and took some pictures to send home to Momma! Then
we headed to the Insti Centre to teach a former guy. I don't even know what his
real name is. They call him Pineapple Joe on his record and stuff, so who
knows! It was an interesting one! Then we did another few solid hours of
finding, so there isn't actually too much to say about today. Our appointment
cancelled on us this evening, so we did a bit of area book work and that was
that.
We began the day by going to get me Anmelded, as the office
finally sent me the stamped form to do it, so I got that sorted, but they told
me I need to reanmeld in 4 months’ time if I'm staying in the country for more
than 3 months. Meh! Well, then we went to pick up Elder Brady's visa from the
visa place. It was terrible, cus we were waiting hours for his number to be
called! It was ridiculous! Then when we finally got it and got home we had a
lunch, did studies and headed to the centre to meet our Iranian Investigators.
We taught the Ten Commandments and then we set up for Englisch und Deutsch
Course, but nobody turned up for our English Course again and the Wien 5 Elders
have Deutsch Course on Thursdays and they were fine, so we went to get me a
Vorteilskarte which basically gives train discounts and I need it for the
ticket we have for tomorrow to get to Salzburg. Then we did some finding
and vorbeis and dooring before heading to the Familie H for Abendessen. So
essen was awesome and the Sisters brought Wizard along, as B likes to play it
with us, so we did. It was so much fun! Legit! This evening was great! Then we
did the spiritual thought before running for the train .. and that was our day!
Freitag
morgen was a real early one! We had to be out by 6.30 to get to Bahnhof
Meidling for the train to Salzburg for Mission Tour! It was crazy early! We all
get to Bhf to get the train and then the ZLs are late- so we all got on the
train as the tickets were in smaller groups, but the ZLs had the ticket for
them and the STLs, so we just left the STLs at Bahnhof while we took the train
to Salzburg! Anyways! So the train was like packed, so we were a bit separated,
although we managed to get a 4 seater. That’s one of the photos! Other Elders
were just like airdropping random photos to us all, so we did a Wien 1 selfie
and sent that! Well, we finally got to Salzburg- we legit just took a bus from
Bhf to the chapel, but from the bus Salzburg is such a cool city! Then mission
tour began! This time it was with Elder Pilz and his wife. He's an area seventy
from Germany! It was actually a really cool conference and lunch was amazing!
Then obviously your general chit chat afterwards before picking up mail and
heading back. There are like 4 Britts in total in the Wien and Salzburg Zones,
so we had to have a Britt pic, as that like never happens on the other side!
Then we headed home, but this time we managed to get good seats on the train,
but there were more of us! It was pretty fun! Then after trailing that
humongous box around Wien, we managed to get home, had dinner and the day was
over! I love my new suit- it's the best! Just the package in general is just filled
with everything I wanted, but I'm gonna get an early one, cause I am dead after
this mornings’ early get up! I can add my notes from Mission Tour, but they may
not be all that understandable.... Well, Sister Kohler began by speaking about
family and how much she appreciates being here and seeing all of us, how proud
she is of us and how much she appreciates each of our mothers for raising us so
well. How much she knows that our mothers would love to trade places with her
to just sit up on that stand and stare at us all day. Haha! Then she went into
the story of Elijah (1 Kings 19) and about how he wanted to give up. It was
enough for him .. and how sometimes we feel the same as missionaries, but God
knows what our limits are; draw upon Him and He will help. Then she challenged
us to ask the Lord daily to remind us of how and where He has sent us that day
to help Him and help someone else. Then President did a ‘Meet the Kohlers’
presentation, as it's been a while since the last one and there are so many
newer missionaries who don't know the Kohlers all that well; so that was cool
again. Then he spoke over the Easter initiative which goes live in 2 days time
and we got our pass along cards. Then Elder Pilz spoke about what it's like to
be an Area Seventy and what his role is. He spoke on missionaries of the Past
and of the Present and the going forth of the work in German-speaking Europe!
It was pretty cool. He spoke about being a missionary that people will remember
forever, remaining in contact with members, leaders, investigators and
companions throughout your life and making it a goal to introduce your future
spouse and children to them. Then he closed with the Atonement and how the Atonement
is ‘healing without scars’ (He's an Orthopaedic Surgeon, so he had a few
stories to go with that as well). Then we broke for lunch. Then President spoke
again about Heart, Might, Mind and Strength and linked it really well into the
Wizard of Oz. It was pretty cool. Then Sister Pilz spoke about the difficulties
of missionary work and the power of prayer. She shared a story which Sister
Bednar shared with her, from a conversation she had with Sister Hinckley in
which Sister Bednar asked how she does it, how she keeps going with full
support for her husband and Sister Hinckley replied "I put on my shoes and
just Go!" .. and Sister Pilz applied that into doing missionary work. It
was really good! Then Elder Pilz again, this time we separated, so all of the
Sisters went with Sister Kohler and Pilz and the Elders stayed with Elder Pilz
and Pres. Here they spoke about Temptations and Protection and how everybody
has weak spots and Satan knows exactly what and where they are. We need to
learn of our weak spots and protect them. Then we came back together and Elder
Pilz continued with the Articles of Faith. He broke them down into categories;
so 1-3 talk about the Plan of Salvation; 4-6 about the structure of the church;
7-9 the resources or gifts of heaven; 10-12 the activities to build up Zion;
and 13 Perception and Self-conception. Then he testified how the Lord is
pleased with what we do and that was mission tour. It was a really good
meeting!
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| Off to Salzburg for Mission Tour |
So not too much happened on Samstag. We began the day with
studies, followed by Mittags, followed by weekly planning! It was a pretty
effective weekly planning session to be fair. Then it was time to head over to
Pfahlhaus, which is on the other side of Vienna- so we are like north and middle
of the city and then the Stake Centre is South and middle. We basically share
the innerstadt with Wien 2 as well, even though it's technically our area! Well,
anyway we got there about 20 mins early, so did some good old meeting and
greeting and another one of my MTC teachers is in the Stake. She is in Wien 2
Gemeinde, but we got to speak at Stake Conference! It was soooo cool! It is
just crazy cool how you can now just speak to them in German, compared to the
MTC where you could barely even introduce yourself and your purpose without
note cards! Haha! Legit, Pfahlkonferenz was soooo good! The spirit throughout
the Conference was sooo strong, it was amazing! I can add my notes again, but I
took quite a few tonight. So one of the Counsellors on the Stake Presidency
spoke first about the family being ordained of God and how each member of the
family has a role to play on the role of the spirit in the home. He spoke about
unity between the parents and then spoke a lot on the importance of FHE and
planning it with spiritual guidance, as it is like any meetings found within
the church, just on a smaller more personal level. Seek the Lord in planning
FHE- He knows what the family needs and He will guide you. Then one of the
youth spoke on how keeping the Sabbath holy brings us closer to Christ,
focussing more on the sacredness of the sacrament and reflection during that
time. Then one of the RM's spoke about what he learnt the most from his mission
and how, when we truly love the Lord, we would share His gospel. Then we had a
couple talk and it was Bruder und Schwester Beer (Schwester Beer was Sister
Gehrig- one of my MTC teachers). Their talk was kind of all over the place, but
it was brilliant. They began talking about being Christian and what that means;
what it means to be a Saint and choosing to follow Christ. How Christ should be
in our hearts at all times. How do we keep Christ in the centre of our lives?
Serving others and how most of the time we don't even realise we are doing it
when we do- watch your thoughts, words and deeds. Lead a Christ-like life in
all situations. We are here so that bad people can become good and good people
can become better! Then another Sister spoke about how we be true disciple of
Christ and keep the Sabbath holy. She shared a few experiences including one
from working on a Sunday and how she needed to be willing to make sacrifices to
do what is right, in that case, to miss out on a bit of extra money, which they
could have needed. It was a really good talk! Then another guy spoke about
Ordinances, including the Sacrament and Temple ordinances and how we need to
humble ourselves before all things Sacred! Then Präsident Wondra (Stake Pres)
spoke about Christ. How we need to keep coming to Christ whether we are men,
women or children. He touched on Easter and how it is the perfect time of year
to think about Christ. Then he asked a few questions which I wrote down for us
all to think about such as; Wie tief und innig denken wir an ihn nach?(I can't
translate that one- something like ‘How deeply do we think on Him?’) How much
time do we give to think on Him? In which relationship do we stand to Christ?
Then he spoke about the Sacrament meeting being the most holy and sacred
meeting of the church. In that meeting we promise to always remember Him, so
put away all distractions- don't break that promise before you even leave the
chapel. The idea of preparing and reflecting before renewing that covenant is
not to show ourselves how bad of a person we are, but to remind ourselves of
how great the love and mercy of Christ truly is. Then he closed by challenging
us to think about whether we are living in line with our covenants- Are we on
our way back to Him? It was a brilliant meeting and the spirit was so intense
and that was just the Saturday evening session!
I'm excited for tomorrow’s meeting!
So Sonntag morgen we got a
bit of study in as Conference didn't begin until 10, so we did Personal and
then headed over to the chapel to help set up, as instead of meeting somewhere
big enough for the whole Stake they held todays’ session in Graz and then did
an Übertragung (no idea what you call that in English- like you video it and
watch it live somewhere else) to the Wien 1, 2 and Wiener Neustadt buildings.
It kind of sucked! Like, the signal dropped a few times and when that happened
everyone just goes so irreverent, it's ridiculous! Well anyway, I can add my
notes again from it. So Präsident Soucek (older brother of Bishop- he's a Counsellor
on the SP) began with a Star Wars- The Force Awakens analogy and how we all
have this Godly power- the power of the Holy Ghost. We need to awaken that
spiritual power! It was a really good talk to be fair and his little analogy
kept some ears glued to what he said! Then another guy (I think he may have
also been a recent RM, but I don't actually know). He spoke on testimony and how
Christs’ Mercy is the greatest attribute! Then we had another couple talk. These
couple talks are actually really quite cool! I like the way they do them. Well,
they spoke on confirmations of the Holy Ghost and how the Spirit can truly help
us in all situations, not just spiritual decisions, but also life this
decisions and how we need to follow those promptings when they come! Then a
Neubekehrter shared his testimony- he was baptised a year ago, so he was so
nervous, but it was really good! Then the Kohlers! I love these people! So
Sister Kohler was first and she spoke about missionary work. She shared her
story on her decision to serve a mission, even though PK was home from his
mission and they could have just got married, but she went and served. She spoke
about how it has prepared her to become a Mother and a Wife and how a mission
helps us truly learn that we aren't enough on our own, but with the Lord we can
be enough! She then challenged everybody to set a goal to serve a mission and
just bore pure testimony of the blessings of it. I just love Sister Kohler. She
is such a great example. She doesn't speak very much German and she never got
the MTC to learn it, yet every Pfahlkonferenz she gets up there, says no to
speaking in English and having someone translate and just speaks auf Deutsch,
without any notes (or if she does, she never looks down at them). She is such a
great role model! Then Präsident Kohler spoke. He kind of touched on a few
things including how we don't get to partake of the Sacrament 4 times a year
and asked how many of us actually realise that, how when we don't get to
partake of it, how much deeply we should be thinking of it and the blessing we
have to partake of it. He spoke about everybody doing their part and challenged
everybody to bring at least one person this Easter season nearer to Christ.
Then Präsident Wondra (SP) spoke about how we should be wanting the gift of the
Spirit more than anything else in this world. How we must hold fast in what we
believe and study the words of the prophets to help receive personal
revelation. Then he gave 3 things we need to invite the Spirit: first, we need
to have the desire to have the Holy Ghost with us; second, we need the right
intentions in inviting the Holy Ghost; and third, we must keep the
commandments. With each of them we need to be humble and true in the things we
do. Then he challenged the whole Stake to invite the Lord to tell us if we are
living in such a way which invites the Spirit. Then he closed in leaving a
pretty powerful blessing upon the members of the Stake. It was actually a
really nice Conference again, once the signal stopped dying! Like legit, that
is probably my last Pfahlkonferenz as a missionary! That’s pretty sad! Well
anyways, after that we chatted for a bit, tried to set up some appointments
with members in the coming week and then headed over to Familie H for lunch.
They are so cool! We played sleeping lions as well, haha! - but it didn't last
very long! Then we came back home and watched the face to face with Elder
Holland for comp study and sprach! It was actually really good! I really
enjoyed it! Then we headed to the Insti centre for a lesson with our Iranian
friends and then chatted with a few JAE, as they were having an activity there
and watching the face to face and then home!
It's been a pretty good week! There is so much goingg on here in
Vienna its craziness, but I love it! We're helping the Sisters out with
organising an Easter Devotional type thing for Karfreitag, which we're going to
invite the JAE, Less actives and Investigators to, so if you have any good
ideas we can include; so far we plan to share some Bible videos with musical
items in between and maybe a few readings from the Bible. There’s a few other
things I wanted to write here at the end, but now I can't remember what they
were. Oh well! I'll write it down for next time! Well today we plan on going to
a factory of something typically Wienerisch with the Sisters, so we'll see how
that goes! I hope you each have a great week. Love you all!
Alles Liebe,
Elder Ammon Robertson xxxxxxxxxx
Woche 86 von 102- Stephansdom,
Wien Team Meal und Wohlfahrtstag!
Hallo!
We'll go straight in on Montag! So after studies this morning we
headed to the shop to pick some food up before we were gonna leave to meet the
Sisters, but they messaged saying they were running late, so we popped over to
the chapel to do a bit of emailing before going to meet them. So the plan was
to go to the Manner factory as someone told us they did tours of it, so we get
there and there are no tours or anything, just a factory store. So we looked
around there, bought a few things and met up with Wien 5. Then we decided we'd
go to Stephansdom instead. So we headed over to Stephansplatz, had a look around
the Cathedral and then did the climb! My goodness, my legs were burning, but
the views from the top were pretty cool! Then back down, had a group picture,
then we went around the Easter markets for a bit before heading over to the
Instizentrum to do some proper emailing .. and that was pday! Then this evening
we just did a load of finding and a few vorbeis!
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| At Stephansdom |
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| The View from Stephansdom |
So Dienstag began after studies by heading to the Instizentrum for
district meeting. We have ours there, as it's more central for the district. Our
district is Wien 1, St Pöllten and the Senior Couple (although they rarely ever
come) and Brady is the DL. We had lunch and then had DM. It was actually really
good! We did like the best opening hymn ever- we did a medley of 'God Save the
Queen' and 'My Country Tis of Thee'- It was beautiful! Haha! Then Sister Jest
had the Deutschtipp and she asked Elder Brady something and he said
"Oui" so she then asked him in French if she should do it all in
French and he said “Oui” again, having no idea what she actually just asked
him, so then she just did like the whole Deutschtipp in French. It was soooo
funny! His face was just so confused as to what just happened! Haha! The rest
of it was based on extending commitments. I had to organise the roleplay, so I
did a sequence role play- started as a bus contact, onto street, then a vorbei
and into a lesson. Just like an ‘extending commitments’ in all situations type
of a thing. It went actually really well and everyone played their roles
perfectly! Then we did a few phone calls and redesigned our English course flyer,
so we got that sorted and then we went out for a bit, before coming back for
English/Deutsch course. Again, nobody turned up for us and then Elder
Neugebauer got talking, then we helped clear up after the classes and then
headed out again. I really hate finding sometimes, especially when the weather
is so bad. Then we headed over to the chapel as the Sisters got the flyers
printed for the Easter devotional thing, but they needed cutting, so they asked
us if we could do it for them- so we did! It took forever, like there were
sooooo many! Then home, dinner and bed!
So Mittwoch we began the day with studies before heading over to
the tennis club for our Wien Team meal appointment with Brother V. It was soooo
good! We had a 3 course meal. For my main I took a burger, cause I was in a
burger mood and haven't had one in a while and it was amazing! Oh mensch! 'Twas
so good! Then the Wien 3 Sisters nabbed the spiritual thought- they did it so
everyone writes 3 points of their testimony of Christ, then we all went round
the table and shared at least one, then we gave them all to him and watched the
new Easter message. It was actually a really nice thought! So after lunch we
had like loads of time until this evenings appointment, so we headed to the
University and did some contacting there- legit we had some brilliant conversations
and gave away like 4 books; and we met some super cool guy who we can hopefully
start meeting with. It was a great day! We also got stopped by a group of
students outside parliament who wanted to interview us, so that was
interesting.... Then this evening we met with M, M and B again. We spoke more
about Easter with them and watched last years’ video, as the language is more understandable
for them. It was a pretty good lesson and we had a JAE join us as well, as it
was just before Insti. Then they stayed for Insti. I had to share the
missionary moment, or more so I informed them about a few things such as the
video and the devotional thing that the missionaries are doing on Karfreitag,
then just did a quick Easter based spiritual thought. I think it went well!
Then the class was based on the Saviour ministering in the Spirit world. A few
things were said in the class which seemed pretty cool, one was- Death is just
a bridge to the next part of life, life never actually ends. The second-
Repetition brings Conviction! I just thought those two comments were cool! Then
home and planned and that was the day!
Donnerstag after studies and lunch we popped quickly to the chapel
to order tickets for district meeting and tausches next week. It's so much
easier to just have a GA. Then we headed over to the Instizentrum to meet a new
member, but he never showed up, so we quickly put together an email to send to
the Bishops of the wards in Wien to announce this Easter devotional that the
Sisters are planning to do on Karfreitag. Then we headed out and did some
finding, although not too much actually happened. Then back to the centre for
Deutsch/Englisch Kurs. Nobody turned up again for English, so we helped out
with Deutsch again and marked the tests which they gave them in Tuesdays’
class. Then after that, we headed out again and did some vorbeis and dooring,
although it was all kids that were home and it was like 18.30, so that was
weird. Then popped to the chapel to do an MTC language assessment, which we
have to do every few months. Our mission was like one of the chosen ones to do
it, so we have the joy of doing those. Then we tried to figure out how to put
up this BoM display thing in the chapel, which the Sisters had and were asked
to sort, but it didn't quite look very good anyway, so we quit and will ask the
Sisters about it at some point. See if we can find a better one to use. Then
home, dinner and the day was done!
So on Freitag after a bit of studies, we headed to the centre to
meet with our Iranian investigators. Today we basically spoke about the 13
Articles of Faith and explained them a bit. Then told them to brush up on the Restoration,
as next time we want them to teach it to us. They were totally down for it and
getting pretty excited for it. Then we headed to the chapel to set up some
tables for the FHV for their activity tonight before popping over the road to
grab lunch at home. Then we did weekly planning, although we didn't really
finish all of it on time before heading back to the centre to meet F (new
member) and we spoke about tithing and answered some of his questions. It was
pretty good. Then back home, did some sprach before heading over to the chapel
for a lesson with an investigator I have never met... and still haven't as he didn’t
turn or answer his phone, so we headed back home to finish weekly planning,
then as it was coming up to 20.00, the sisters called us to say to come back to
the chapel to eat the leftovers from the FHV activity .. so we did - bonus of
living opposite the place!! That was super good and the day was basically done.
So we began Samstag with studies before heading to Pfahlhaus as we
were supposed to be meeting F again, but he never turned up, so we started
helping prepare stuff for this Pfahl Wohlfahrtstag (no idea what that is auf
Englisch. It's like service, but not - because service is dienen). Then
basically the rest of our day was spent at this Wohlfahrtstag! It was
craziness. They invited a camp of refugees and then the day was spent feeding
them and then playing games and different activities and stuff and that filled
the majority of the day, but it was fun. Then we helped clear away before
heading over to another appointment, which ended up falling through. So home,
finished weekly planning properly, sprachstudium und essen!
Sonntag was a pretty average one! Church was pretty good- they
based sacrament meeting on the FHV, so all of the talks were given by men and
were based on women and the importance of women and stuff! Then Gospel Principles
was based on Gifts of the Spirit. Then in Priesthood we gave out a survey type
thing which we wanted to get the members to do, so we can know how we can
better help them do missionary work. Then the class was based on the
resurrection. Then after church we headed home, had lunch and did studies
before heading over to meet a member who we were taking with us to vorbei on a
guy we met a while back who only speaks Bulgarian. He was home, so we met with
him - well we actually went for a walk together and had a lesson with this guy.
He is a member who is now less active since he moved here, as he had no idea
how to get to church and doesn't speak a word of English or Deutsch, but we had
a pretty good lesson. We invited him to attend Deutschkurs. Then we headed back
home, sprach und essen and the day was over.
Well, I hope you each have a brilliant week! Love you loads and
loads!
Alles Liebe,
Elder Ammon Robertson xxxxxxx
